Tag Archives: hawaii

The Tuesday after our wedding, Ben and I had left the frigid Midwest behind and were more than ready to board our cruise ship in Long Beach, California. Our itinerary was as follows: stop in Ensenada, Mexico on the way out, spend four nights at sea, have a day each in Oahu, Maui, Kauai, and the Big Island, and then head back to California over the next five nights. The height of overconsumption relaxation! The whole two weeks were glorious, but here’s a quick rundown of particularly notable moments.

ENSENADA: We did a wine tasting excursion in the morning (amazing and cheap), and hit up a local place known for their ceviche in the afternoon. So delicious.

It’s the moment you all have been waiting for. Or actually more like the moment I have been waiting for because I have been dying to share with you all our wedding highlight video! I wanted to wait until our recaps were done as our video captures the entire wedding day and reception.

Can you believe Aria Studios gave us our highlight video the day after our wedding?! They were such a pleasure to work with, and I HIGHLY recommend them to anyone that needs wedding videography services. They also provide photography, which I cannot speak to as we did not use their services.

Their use of our vows, words from our ceremony, and music all edited together into a cohesive video from that day is truly a work of art. I do not, for a second, doubt the extra expense of hiring a videographer, especially a good one like Aria.

As I’m nearing the end of my time here on the ‘Bee, I can’t help but get a little sentimental and sad that our wedding day is over. Sheesh, Eel, it has only been six months since your wedding. Major eye roll.

While our wedding day wasn’t perfect and there were things in hindsight I wish didn’t happen or we could’ve changed, they in no way took away from the amount of happiness we felt on our wedding day. This may sound odd, but when I look at our pictures, I feel a little sad wishing we could go back and do it all over again.

On the other hand, I am so happy to have these pictures as I am able to relive each moment and even some of those that I may have missed.

My favorite recap posts are ALWAYS the details posts. I love seeing the hard work of planning come to fruition in the little details that not all wedding guests may notice, but truly make the entire wedding picture complete.

Ceremony decor

Admittedly, the details of our wedding were a labor of love by our wonderful friends and family with a little help from me. We have amazing people in our life who volunteered to help us throughout wedding planning, which not only saved us money, but also helped turn my vision into reality. We could not have had the wedding we did without their help, so for that I am extremely grateful.

Yes! The ceremony was done and we were officially husband and wife. It was time to “get this party started on a Saturday night” a la Pink. But before we could officially start the celebration and mingle with our guests, we needed to take a few extended-family photos. We had two helpers that ushered our family members along when it was their time to take a photo with us. This helped move things along quickly, and in about 15 minutes we were officially done with posed photos for the day!

If you’re like me, trying different food while travelling is one of the best things in the world. Mr. Horseshoe and I were pretty excited to sample regional Hawaiian delights. Here are some of my food-related highlights of our trip in no particular order.

While not pictured, we really enjoyed our visit to Costco. We were super tempted by the large, fresh, and inexpensive bowls of poke…but there’s no way the two of us could have finished a serving size that large on our own. We did end up buying a big tray of Hawaiian sweet rolls, cheese, fruit, crackers, and some other small bites I can’t quite remember. I mentioned in previous posts that having breakfast/lunches from Costco saved us quite a bit of money. I highly recommend taking a trip to Costco if you have a membership—it is well worth it!

Eagerly awaiting our scampi

Mr. & Mrs. Eel took us to Giovanni’s Shrimp Truck for lunch on the way to the North Shore. We had no idea what we were in for…and what a treat it was. Mr. Horseshoe and I shared a large order of shrimp scampi and rice. Definitely visit a shrimp truck if you’re in Oahu. While the trucks can have a bit of a line and wait for your food, it’s well worth it.

Hawaiian Cruise Honeymoon

Mele Kalikimaka is the thing to say on a bright Hawaiian Christmas Day! Or, it’s what gets in your head EVERY SINGLE TIME you think about your honeymoon…

Throughout my youthful daydreaming, I always thought I would want to honeymoon somewhere active, with lots to do and see. While I do enjoy travel like that, in recent years I have come to anticipate my honeymoon differently—my top priority now is spending time lounging with my new husband. So when Benjamin and I began to talk about what we might do, I presented the most basic of all honeymoon ideas: Hawaii!

It may be predictable, but it’s easy to see why it’s such a popular destination. Obviously it’s unbelievably beautiful, and it’s still within the US, so actual travel is less of a hassle. (Benjamin and I have traveled quite a bit abroad, and while I LOVE that, we wanted our honeymoon to be as stress free as possible.)

Intimate Hawaii Wedding

Hive member ksn1219 and her husband were wed in a beautiful beach ceremony on Waimanlo Beach in Honolulu, Hawaii, and they celebrated with friends and family at a private residence afterward.

We are now opening this series up to nominations, so if you’ve seen a wedding on the Weddingbee boards that you think would be perfect for this series, send an email to guest (at) weddingbee (dot) com with a link to the recap thread you want to nominate, or you can directly PM Mrs. Mouse with your nomination.

We wanted to have a simple yet elegant touch to our wedding. My husband and I chose the gray and pink color combination, and we went from there. Since I am Catholic and my husband is not, we incorporated some Catholic ceremonies into our wedding in combination with some Hawaiian traditions; we even added a sand ceremony.

Why did you choose Aulani for your wedding?

My husband and I are big Disney fans, and ever since we started dating we’ve made sure that we visit Walt Disney World or go on a Disney cruise once a year. Our first out-of-town vacation was actually a week spent at Walt Disney World. Having said that, we made sure that we did get married in a Disney Resort. When Aulani opened in 2011, we were so thrilled because we’d always wanted to go to Hawaii, hence the decision to get married in Aulani.

What were your favorite or most memorable aspects of your wedding day?

I asked my husband this question, and he said his favorite is when I was walking down the aisle. 😉 For me it was seeing all the people who made an effort to join us on that special day.

Is there anything you would have done differently?

No, we are completely happy and satisfied with everything we had that day.

Do you have any advice for future brides?

Have fun with the planning and don’t go crazy. Take it as a fun experience instead of stressing over it. There will be challenges and changes along the way, but just keep calm and marry on!

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